The German champions of 1960, Hamburger SV, won the championship with a seven-point lead over runner-up Werder Bremen. Uwe Seeler contributed 29 and Klaus Stürmer 20 goals to the goal difference of 101:29 . The ten minus points of the champions also include the two points from the last game day, when HSV decided not to host the home game against VfL Osnabrück on April 30, 1961. The 1: 2 home defeat on the day of the catch-up match on April 16 against Concordia Hamburg can also be registered under the heading "Protection for the games in the" European Cup of National Champions 1960/61 "". HSV had eliminated Young Boys Bern and FC Burnley and lost in the semi-finals against FC Barcelona with their stars Evaristo, Kocsis, Kubala and Suarez in April / May 1961 in the decider in Brussels with 0-1 goals.
A 5-0 home win against Concordia on matchday 30 was of no use to VfB Lübeck, as Bremerhaven simultaneously prevailed 2-1 at Altona 93 and Bergedorf 85 won a point in Braunschweig and both rivals secured themselves relegation. In the top scorer list, Arnold Schütz took second place with 22 goals behind Uwe Seeler in front of Peter Osterhoff with 21 goals.
The two runners-up of the Lower Saxony amateur league determined the third Lower Saxony participant in the promotion round. For the first time, the qualification was played in a home and away leg . The amateurs of VfL Osnabrück were not eligible to participate. But the table third Eintracht Nordhorn moved up. The games took place on April 23rd and 30th, 1961. Eintracht Nordhorn prevailed after a coin toss .
The amateurs of Holstein Kiel became champions in Schleswig-Holstein. Since the team was not entitled to participate, the third in the table Schleswig 06 moved up.
The teams from Bremen and Hanover with equal points determined who were promoted from Group B in a decider. The game took place on June 10, 1961 in Hamburg's Millerntor Stadium .
The 1. FC Köln defended his title in the West, was runner Borussia Dortmund . After the 17th matchday, Alemannia Aachen had topped the table with 21:11 points, but the team from Tivoli Stadium ended up in eighth place with 29:31 points. On the 27th matchday, the two top teams Borussia Dortmund and 1. FC Köln separated in the second half of the season on April 16, 1961 with a 3-3 draw and led the table with 36:18 points tied. A Dortmund draw at SV Sodingen and the 3-0 defeat against Meidericher SV on the final day of the round led to 1. FC Köln's lead of three points. The Cologne team scored the most goals (79) and received the fewest goals with 33 goals. Hans Schäfer was not only superior in directing, he also scored the most goals for the champions with 20 goals. On the defensive, goalkeeper Fritz Ewert , the defender couple Georg Stollenwerk and Karl-Heinz Schnellinger in conjunction with stopper Leo Wilden ensured order. VfL Bochum lost the home game against Hamborn 07 with 1: 4 goals on the 30th matchday and thus rose together with Rot-Weiss Essen from the league. RWE scored only 32 goals in 30 league games, making it the western league's lowest goal attack.
Jürgen Schütz (Borussia Dortmund) headed the list of goalscorers with 27 goals, ahead of Willi Bergstein (Alemannia Aachen) with 25 and Ulrich Kohn (Borussia Mönchengladbach) with 21 goals.
Defending champion FK Pirmasens came in one point behind champions 1. FC Saarbrücken and runner-up Borussia Neunkirchen with the same number of points. After the preliminary round, FKP and Neunkirchen had topped the table with 21: 9 points in front of Sportfreunde and 1. FC Saarbrücken. Josef Christ headed the list of goalscorers with 15 goals in front of his sports friends colleague Hans-Jürgen Massion and Heinz Vollmar from 1. FC Saarbrücken with ten goals each. At the end of the round, Christ took the top scorer's crown with 25 goals in front of Helmut Kapitulski , Klaus Matischak and Heinz Vollmar with 19 goals each. Pirmasens lost the top game in Neunkirchen with 2: 3 goals on matchday 29 and fell back to third place. At the end of the table Niederlahnstein had no chance, whereas the fight for the second relegated remained exciting until the final day.
Last year's sixth in the table, 1. FC Nürnberg , won the championship with the new coach Herbert Widmayer in southern Germany . After the first half of the season there was still a serious competitor with Kickers Offenbach - on November 13th the "Club" lost the top game on the Bieberer Berg with 1: 2 goals - but at the end of the round, seven points separated the new southern champion from runner-up Eintracht Frankfurt . The offensive around the veteran Max Morlock scored the most goals with 96 goals and the defensive around stopper Ferdinand Wenauer allowed the fewest with 30 goals conceded. Against the later runner-up Eintracht Frankfurt, Nuremberg prevailed on December 26, 1960 in a catch-up game 2-0 in Frankfurt and on January 8, 1961 also won the home game with the same result. Rudi Brunnenmeier (1860 Munich) and Erwin Stein (Eintracht Frankfurt) topped the list of goalscorers with 23 goals , Heinz Strehl (1. FC Nürnberg) followed closely behind with 22 goals. The champion of the year 1960, the Karlsruher SC - Gustav Witlatschil , Horst Szymaniak , Günter Herrmann - came in third place. The SV Waldhof Mannheim and 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 escaped with a point ahead of TSG Ulm 1846 before the league. On matchday 30, April 30, 1961, the 2-2 draw at SV Waldhof Mannheim was not enough for the "Spatzen" to achieve their class goal.
